Differences in student pain tolerance

[DWx]

Train smart, not just hard.

Whilst I'm all for pushing through discomfort, real pain should not be taken lightly!

Training through real pain results in one of two things:

- the student doesn't want to keep training and attending your class so they quit

- Or worse, the student injures themselves, sometimes with long lasting consequences. Pain is your body telling you to stop for a reason!

I really don't why in this day and age we still have this hardcore attitude that we should push through pain. Push through discomfort yes. Push yourself to breakdown mental and physical barriers yes. But if you're body is telling you something is wrong, listen to it, recuperate, and come back stronger.

How many martial artists do we all know with busted ankles, knees and hips? I personally want to keep using mine for the next few decades thank you.

There can be a great distinctive difference between one student to another regarding pain tolerance.

How do you regulate what one student can endure compared to the next?

This is all about getting to know your students and know where their limits are. Its a very individual thing and each student has to be treated on a case by case basis.

[singularity6]

I slept funny this past Saturday night, and had some pretty severe neck pain. Got cracked on Monday at the chiropractor. I would say I was about 90%+ better when I went to class on Tuesday. If I were smart, I wouldn't have done any of the self defense stuff, and just worked on things like forms and strike techniques. Well, that didn't happen. I got on the mats with a tweaked neck. By the end of class, I was in a fair amount of pain and wasn't moving well. When walking into the changing room, I was pretty sure one of the instructors was complaining/joking about the students being "wusses." I can see where he's coming from. I was annoyed. Not necessarily with anything that was said, but with the fact that I end up injured more often than I care to.

The pain that night actually woke me up. So yesterday (Wednesday,) I go into the chiropractor again to get cracked, and to get a massage. Sure enough, the T2 vertebra was twisted and had to be put back. When the masseuse took over, he found that my right rhomboid (near that vertebra, and where most of my pain was located) was in rough shape. Fortunately, I have good insurance that covers such things!

[Alan Armstrong]

Hypothetically or not, as an instructor visiting another school and pain is your game, how long would you stay in this class?